Planning a Honeymoon

If you are planning your marriage and honeymoon and wonder what choices you have for a memorable honeymoon, here are just a few ideas for you. They are not going to include the usual spots like Tahiti or Mexico or Hawaii since they are already well known and possibly overdone even. The following ideas are for honeymoons on every kind of budget – from $ 2,000 to $ 20,000.

For the budget conscious (under $ 2,000) who do not want to just stay home, consider camping or simply driving to National Parks and staying in motels for a week. Very nice trips can be taken to nearby Parks where motels might only cost $ 80 per night on the road and double that for motels in or near National Parks. Gas may cost $ 300 for a reasonable length honeymoon of 7-10 days, and 10 nights at an average of $ 100 plus food and misc. expenses should bring you in for under $ 2,000.

If you live fairly near a big city and want to experience the vibrancy of a major location like New York or San Francisco, simply reserve a room at pleasant hotels charging $ 200 per night and stay for a week. Keep in mind that parking at downtown hotels can cost $ 40 per night as well and add for food. You may need to scale back your budget in that case but many desirable hotels in nice areas can rent for only $ 150 per night.

With a larger budget of say $ 4,000, think about some of the newer hot spots where getting there is most of the cost. Places like Costa Rica or the Dominican Republic. Flights from anywhere in the US should run no more than $ 800- $ 1200 for both of you (unless you live in Alaska or Maine) and many hotels can cost as little as $ 60 per night. You could conceivably stay for 2 weeks or more and have money for excursions like tours, snorkeling and maybe even gambling.

You can consider Alaska also, as many cruises originate out of Vancouver BC and Seattle in addition to Anchorage and other ports within Alaska's borders. Flights to Seattle or BC and cruise reservations should not cost more than $ 2,000 to $ 2,500 and that also leaves plenty of spending money for tours, gratuities, alcohol and gambling.

With budgets approaching $ 10,000, consider visiting several countries in Europe. Once there, you can explore exciting options like barge tours or cruises on all the major rivers, sometimes getting married in a castle or renting a room in a castle at the least or taking a cruise from points in Greece like Santorini or Athens.

For those with even more income to dispose of, consider renting a yacht in Europe or in the Caribbean. Some yachts you can rent alone, others take 8-12 passengers. You can also easily honeymoon in Japan with an expanded budget and sometimes stay in a resort near Mt. Fuji. Other ideas include renting private planes, taking month long cruises or even going over the 'pond' from Europe to New York on one of the new liners plying the ocean. The important thing is to make sure you and your spouse to be agree on all points concerned – from the budget to type of honeymoon (city, beach, island, foreign soil, etc.) to day excursions that interest both of you.